How Bournemouth have taken the Premier League by storm

As AFC Bournemouth continue to surprise everyone, Alex Keble assesses how they have overcome a lengthy injury list to push for UEFA Champions League qualification.

To truly appreciate Andoni Iraola’s AFC Bournemouth, we have to look beyond the nine goals scored in thrashings handed out to top-four rivals Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest over the last fortnight. 

We have to look beyond the controlled chaos of the hard-pressing, forward-charging football, and even beyond the Cherries sitting top of the Premier League table on form over the last 11 Premier League matches.

Premier League form since 29 November 

To truly take in the scale of what Iraola is achieving, take a glance at their injury list. 

Only two Premier League clubs have more players on the treatment table than Bournemouth's nine, and their list includes both of their strikers, Evanilson and Enes Unal. 

See: Every club's injury list

Iraola refuses to complain about Bournemouth's injury list, and has shown that a brilliantly coached tactical system is more important than any one individual. 

Here’s how Bournemouth and Iraola have overcome an injury crisis to become surprise UEFA Champions League hopefuls. 

Frantic high-risk football

High risk, high reward: that’s the mentality of Iraola and his team, whether in hounding the ball with an all-action and full-pitch press or piercing opposition lines with sharp vertical football and attacking overloads. 

Perhaps the best word to encapsulate their tactical approach is "disruption".

Disrupt the other team’s play with furious pressing, and disrupt the expected rhythms of your own attack with improvisations and surges forward in high numbers. 

“I sometimes value much more a player carrying the ball and forcing things to happen,” Iraola said in a recent interview with The Independent.  

“We have to prepare [positional] patterns, but we cannot just prioritise them. If you can see that you don't have a team-mate ahead, forget about the pattern, just drive the ball and try to force things to happen. I want him to attack first.” 

And on the defensive side of things, speaking to Sky Sports in October, Iraola said: “The better the opposition, the more risk you have to take if you want to press them. 

“So, sometimes we have to get used to seeing Lewis [Cook] in the opposition box, even Marcos Senesi sometimes follows in to the edge of the box. 

“It's a risk that we think is good for us. Obviously, sometimes it will not work. But it's the way we want to do things.” 

What do the stats show us?

High pressing and vertical attacking makes Bournemouth stats leaders. 

Their high-risk strategy is captured neatly in the numbers, revealing a Bournemouth side who simply blow opponents away with their brain-scrambling man-to-man press and wildly inventive attacking football. 

From pressures per defensive action (PPDA) - a measure of pressing intensity - to high turnovers and possessions won in different thirds, Bournemouth are consistently top of the pile.

Bournemouth's defensive statistics

They press the ball all over the pitch, with players moving far out of their base positions to track players, follow up behind team-mates and help steal the ball or win 50-50s. 

The idea isn’t just to disrupt the other team’s rhythm but also to win possession in dangerous areas, meaning high-energy and straight-lined attacks starting from an advanced position. 

It’s pure Jurgen Klopp heavy-metal attacking football, and again it shows up in the numbers. 

Bournemouth’s direct attacks, fast breaks and forward pass percentage evidence how vertical they are, while their low number of touches in their own third and low possession average shows they waste no time getting forward.

Bournemouth's attacking statistics

Put these two sides of Bournemouth together and you get one of the most fast and direct teams in the Premier League, as shown in this graph. 

How free-scoring forwards benefit

Those are the core principles, and they have translated into brilliant individual performances in attack, midfield and defence. 

Starting at the front, Justin Kluivert, Dango Ouattara and Antoine Semenyo have been in superb form lately, building a fluid and shape-shifting relationship. 

Over the last four matches in all competitions the trio have notched an incredible 20 goals and assists between them, with nine for Kluivert, six for Outtara and five for Semenyo. 

Accounting for assists to each other, this translates to 15 of Bournemouth’s 16 goals scored in that timeframe. 

This is mainly thanks to the open spaces all three can pour into when the ball is won back by the high press.  

In this example, Bournemouth scored a crucial third goal against Newcastle after Tyler Adams won the ball in the opposition half. 

Ryan Christie, who tops the Premier League charts for recoveries with 143, is the most important player in this regard, while among those who have played 500+ minutes, Adams has made the most tackles per 90 minutes and most interceptions per 90 minutes of any Premier League player this season, with 4.8 and 2.7 respectively.

But as Bournemouth’s strong form despite their injury problems shows, the system is king. 

Even if possession isn’t won high, their willingness to carry the ball forward and dribble through the opposition midfield tends to open up the pitch for direct runners. 

Here, Bournemouth win a penalty against Chelsea due to the sheer number of runs forcing Enzo Maresca’s side to backpedal. 

And for the opening goal against Nottingham Forest, the visitors backed off Kluivert because, once the Cherries had broken at speed, there were just too many runners to track. 

Kluivert's goal v Forest

It’s a risky but hugely rewarding style of football. 

Bournemouth going forward

Huijsen and Zabarnyi the bedrock 

Bournemouth have the third-best defensive record in the Premier League, with 26 goals conceded.

They are slightly overperforming against their figure for Expected Goals Against (xGA), which at 29.22 is the seventh-best tally, but Iraola’s side are nevertheless looking good on a number of defensive metrics. 

Bournemouth's defensive data

Such an aggressive strategy would usually be twinned with openness at the back, with a vulnerability to counter-attacks and through-balls that bypass the hard press. 

But Bournemouth avoid this for two reasons. First, they don’t play quite such a high line, sitting in conservatively when necessary. 

“We are probably not as extreme as, I don't know, Aston Villa or Spurs, where their defenders go straight away to the halfway line every time,” Iraola told Sky Sports. “But we need to be quite brave.” 

That bravery comes from Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi. 

Zabarnyi has played every Premier League minute this season, but it’s no surprise Bournemouth’s superb run in the competition began precisely when 19-year-old Huijsen first came into the side. 

Together, this powerful young centre-back partnership is undefeated across those 11 matches, during which time the club have the joint-best defensive record, with only nine goals conceded. 

Huijsen is undoubtedly the star of the two. Signed from Juventus for around £15million last summer, his strength in the air, composure in possession, and – crucially – assertive front-foot style have catapulted Bournemouth to new heights. 

Among Premier League centre-backs who have started at least five games this season, only Harry Maguire makes more interceptions per 90 than Huijsen's 2.11, with 2.43. 

Not only does he stamp down on counters early, Huijsen also helps to launch those attacks with his line-breaking passing; only two Premier League centre-backs average more progressive carries per 90 than his 2.11. 

Cherries might not have peaked 

With Huijsen and Zabarnyi so young – and newly working together – there is every chance the side's defence will improve this season. 

Their attack certainly has. In fact, Opta Analyst’s recent look at Bournemouth revealed that their rolling non-penalty goal and Expected Goals (xG) difference is only just becoming positive. 

What’s more, the Cherries are actually underperforming based on xG for and against. 

Add in Bournemouth’s injuries, which could clear up by spring, and there is every chance Iraola’s side will accelerate away in 2025. 

They’re already only a point off fourth place. Champions League football is a very real possibility. 

The top seven

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
1	Liverpool LIV	22	+33	53
2	Arsenal ARS	23	+23	47
3	Nott'm Forest NFO	23	+6	44
4	Man City MCI	23	+17	41
5	Newcastle NEW	23	+14	41
6	Chelsea CHE	23	+15	40
7	Bournemouth BOU	23	+15	40

Bournemouth's next PL fixtures

Bournemouth

15:00 Sat 01 Feb LIV (H) 15:00 Sat 15 Feb SOU (A) 15:00 Sat 22 Feb WOL (H) 19:30 Tue 25 Feb BHA (A) 14:00 Sun 09 Mar TOT (A)

Bournemouth

15:00 Sat 01 Feb LIV (H) 15:00 Sat 15 Feb SOU (A) 15:00 Sat 22 Feb WOL (H) 19:30 Tue 25 Feb BHA (A) 14:00 Sun 09 Mar TOT (A)